Band of the Day: Thunder Club

We’ve had a little gap in BotD features due to festival coverage, house moves and so on. Kicking us back off (before another short break due to Bloodstock and Sabaton Open Air!) are Thunder Club…

Simple things first – where are you guys from?

Thunder Club is proudly from Baltimore, MD!

How did you meet?

Long story short – Garrett, Pete, Dennis, and Conor, all grew up playing music together, with Dennis joining the other three during high school. John, who is Pete’s brother, was asked to join for a jam one Saturday and the Club was born! The rest is, as they say, gravy.

How long have you been playing as a band?

Thunder Club has been slinging tunes since the fall/winter of 2015.

Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?

Truth be told, we’d love to have some wild backstory, but the name was a random occurrence while we were all sitting by the pool. We like to think it came to us, though. Definitely encapsulates our wild energy and sound! Plus it’s fun to say, who doesn’t love that?

What are your influences?

Without restricting ourselves to our influences, our music will seem familiar to fans of Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys, and Bloc Party.

Describe your music. What makes you unique?

Besides our collective good looks, what sets us apart is how many genres and styles of rock we’re able to fit into our songs. Since we don’t have a dedicated songwriter our songs really don’t stick to one specific genre of indie-rock – we have some laid back, pop and dub influenced songs, while others are more in your face and active! We’re all closet music nerds who try to fit in as much complexity as possible without losing general appeal.

Do you have any particular lyrical themes?

Lyrically our songs tend to be about living in the moment, about pushing back on the pressures of life when you’re living in the terrifying twenties and enjoying the moment.

What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?

Oh man, our live show! We have a reputation for throwing banging live shows that are tons of fun and always a party. We like to think it’s in part due to our tunes, but we also really bring the energy on stage. We love what we do, and people can tell! That sort of energy is infectious, people are always dancing. The last show we had in Baltimore actually had the windows sweating. We definitely were, too.

What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?

We played this show at this small club in Baltimore that ended up being such a funky, wild show… there was a guy pirouetting on the dance floor holding up a bag of weed, shining his phone’s light on it, during our songs. This was also the show that one of us ended up rolling on the floor while playing slide guitar using a bottle of Miller. Oh, to be a band.

What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?

John loves his blue, Ludwig Vistalite, in fact we’ve confused the two of them a couple of times. Dennis uses a Supro combo with Reverend/Gibson guitars, Pete uses a Vox combo with Fender/Gibson guitars. Conor uses Fender bass and a too-big Fender bass stack. Garrett uses Vocal Cords, patent pending.

What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?

Well, our new EP entitled Summer Vice drops July, Friday the 13th! We released our single “Go Ahead” on 7/3 and people have been loving it. The EP is three songs, each one a bit different from the other, and we’re super proud of it. If you’re aren’t dancing, you’re missing out! It’s already getting some radio support which is super swell.

What are your plans for the rest of 2018?

Bang out a bunch of shows, and hopefully get back into the studio. We’ve got a lot of songs that we need to get out to the people.

If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!

If we had a Baltimore band sandwich, it would be Yo No Say, and Super City. I honestly can’t say which would be the opener or the closer. That show would be bonkers though!

From previous Band of the Day Joe Settineri: Would you keep doing it if it stopped being fun?

The fun is what drives us, but there will always be times when it isn’t fun. As with anything if life though that’s when you keep pushing!

And from Wolves Don’t Sleep: What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

An African or European swallow?

Thunder Club: facebook | twitter | instagram

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